2021 is the year to break the mould...
One step beyond... Challenge the status quo!
Hello and Happy New Year! If you are sitting there fed up with 2020 and worried about 2021 being much the same, worry not.
2021 is a total game-changer, a liberating year! No more Saturn-Pluto. No more Jupiter-Pluto. No more back to back retrogrades...
This is the moment when you take your first few steps into the unknown. It’s a break-away year of experimentation, progress, change, even revolution!
All that’s no less due to 2021 arriving on the heels of the Great Mutation & Great Conjunction in Aquarius bringing intellectual and scientific breakthroughs, as well as a big sociopolitical and financial paradigm shift. We’re literally moving into a brand new world - a space age! The challenge? You’ll often find yourself with one foot in the future and one still in the past.
And that’s due to Saturn (consolidation/establishment) and Uranus (autonomy/innovation) repeatedly clashing all year long. Those two timelines - past and future - will often vary so wildly in 2021 you’ll be doing the splits!
You’re stretching far beyond your comfort zone this year. The key? Don’t wait for perfection or for the time to be right. The time is right now!
So, with that in mind, let’s look at the major influences of 2021.
This article is about the major trends of 2021. If you want to read your star sign, check out your 2021 horoscope!
Astro Flavour of the Year 2021: Key Ingredients
There’s a great emphasis on Air in 2021 - lightness, communication, learning - a radical shift away from the density and heaviness of 2020. We also have greater emphasis in Fixed and Mutable signs, showing you where you might be stuck and urging you to come up with ingenious solutions!
2021 is a year of learning and technology, networking and experimenting with new ideas. Doing this will require you to stay flexible and keep an open mind.
The eclipses are in mutable signs, demanding you think on your feet. With the Lunar Nodes in Gemini and Sagittarius, and Neptune (and Jupiter) in Pisces, Virgo is the one mutable sign providing the missing piece in 2021. So, how do you tap into your inner Virgo?
Get practical! Put your problem-solving hat on! You’ll need to do this to get unstuck, which is largely what 2021 is all about.
Key 2021 Influences:
Saturn in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus (Fixed Air-Earth)
Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius (Fixed Air)
Eclipses in Gemini-Sagittarius (Mutable Air-Fire)
North Node in Gemini (Mutable Air)
Mercury retrograde in Aquarius, Gemini, Libra (Air)
Neptune and Jupiter in Pisces (Mutable Water)
Pluto in Capricorn, Venus stationary in Capricorn (Cardinal Earth)
Chiron in Aries (Cardinal Fire)
2021 Aquarius Energy: Welcome to the Future!
2020 brought everything to a standstill. In 2021, change is inevitable so you may as well get with the programme.
The Great Conjunction of 2020 has heralded a whole new era, which will largely see the digitisation and virtualisation of our world, the expansion into space and other major scientific and socioeconomic breakthroughs. But the old order is still around, no less due to the seedling conjunctions of 2020 that are now on their merry way, and the fact that Pluto is still in Capricorn till 2023-24.
The old order is still around as a new age is being born. And so this year is largely about the clash of the old and new.
When something is so important, we can find echoes of it repeating throughout the cosmos and so it is now: a shift of planets from Capricorn to Aquarius; a clash between Saturn and Uranus, Aquarius' rulers; the very fact that Aquarius, although the rebel of the zodiac, actually has two rulers: establishment guru Saturn and progressive rebel Uranus. Ultimately, in this Aquarian age, progress will win out. But it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Uranus Square Saturn: Lessons in Revolution!
There’s a real revolutionary vibe to 2021, as the two rulers of Aquarius, Saturn and Uranus, square.
Get ready to surprise yourself! Get ready to question the rules with thoughts along the lines of: “Do I really have to do this? Says who?” Some might even see fit to take matters into their own hands.
There’s great friction as you try, rather clumsily, to make liberating changes - whilst still held in check by structures you depend on for survival. As the demands of the future grate against the drag of the past, you have no choice but to do something about it.
The big question is this: How much of the old order do you want to keep and how much of it do you want to replace?
You can take some time answering that question for yourself - all year in fact. The harder question is how to effect this change. The pressures are so great that you might find yourself doing something - anything - to break free. Because breaking the mould is what ultimately makes progress possible.
This upward energy is a bit like green shoots pushing up from the ground, pushing through rock and soil any odd how till they reach the light of day.
And that’s just as it should be at this great new beginning of a new decade and a new era. We must also bear in mind, however, that 2021 brings the waning square of the Uranus-Saturn synodic cycle * , meaning that the two planets are on their way back toward their conjunction (like a waning moon). And so:
The changes now imperative have been long in coming.
2021 is going to feel uncomfortable, unnerving, unfamiliar, volatile. But also incredibly exciting, revealing, inspiring and liberating! And after the oppression of 2020, it’s just what we need to break positive ground.
This creative tension will bring huge strides forward In 2021, dragging us - often kicking and screaming - into the future.
It’s going to be an exhilarating ride.
Saturn square Uranus dates:
17 February 2021 (7 degrees of fixed signs, both planets direct)
14 June 2021 (13 degrees of fixed signs, Saturn retrograde)
24 December 2021 (11 degrees fixed signs, Uranus retrograde)
The biggest shocks arrive as soon as February, when Saturn and Uranus first clash and their lessons are brand new.
* The seed of this Saturn-Uranus cycle was planted in 1988 in the last degree of Sagittarius. It culminated (when else) in 2008-09 (in Pisces-Virgo). The Saturn-Uranus synodic cycle averages out at 44 years, a power number of business and mastery on the material plane.
Eclipses 2021: Get Unstuck!
The eclipses continue their activity in Gemini and Sagittarius in 2021, the most knowledge-thirsty signs. This is a year where we’re going to be learning many new things and advancing in leaps and bounds.
The most dramatic eclipses this year fall in visionary Sagittarius (a Total Lunar Eclipse Blood Moon in May and a Total Solar Eclipse in December). These are both South Node eclipses, indicating a major clearance sale of old, stale views of the world.
Bear in mind that last year we had no total lunar eclipses. That means we had no major dramatic closures - despite the heaps of dramatic events - just a slow deterioration of our way of life.
But May 2021 brings a dramatic Blood Moon, a key cut off point, when you’ll be ready to make a major life decision.
The exception to this year’s Gemini-Sagittarius eclipses is one partial Lunar Eclipse in Taurus, which arrives on the 19th of November 2021.
This is the first of its kind, activating new themes around our finances, material wellbeing, safety, fuel and the earth's resources toward the end of 2021 that will be with us very dramatically throughout 2022.
So without further ado, here’s the 2021 Eclipses:
26 May - Blood Moon Supermoon Total Lunar Eclipse Full Moon in Sagittarius
At Sagittarius 5 degrees, 26 May, 11:13am GMT/UT (totality visible over Australia, partial eclipse visible over Far East and most of North and South America)
10 June - Annular Solar Eclipse New Moon Micromoon in Gemini
At Gemini 19 degrees, 10 June 10:52am GMT/UT (fire ring visible over parts of Russia, Canada and Greenland, eclipse visible over the UK and much of Europe, Asia, Africa and North America)
19 November - Partial Lunar Eclipse Full Moon Micromoon in Taurus
At Taurus 27 degrees, 19 November, 08:57am GMT/UT (partiality visible over the UK, the Far East, North and South America, Canada, Russia, Greenland, penumbral eclipse only visible in North-Western Europeans Central Asia )
4 December - Total Solar Eclipse New Moon Supermoon in Sagittarius
At Sagittarius 12 degrees, 4 December 07:43am GMT/UT (visible only over Antarctica)
Other Lunar Noteworthies...
This year’s lunations stay relatively stable calendar-wise, starting with a New Moon early to mid-month and culminating in a Full Moon before the month is out. And so, each month, there is a sense of something beginning and then culminating before we move to the next month and get ready for the next thematic.
Besides eclipses, we also have some other interesting lunar events.
Spring 2021 Supermoons
We have three full Supermoons this year with the biggest Full Moon Supermoon in April (the others being the May Blood Moon and the Full Moon in June.
August 2021 Blue Moon
We have one Blue Moon this Summer on August 22nd. This is a zodiacal Blue Moon (the second full moon in the same zodiac sign) and it’s a seasonal Blue Moon too (the third full moon in a season that contains four instead of the usual three full moons).
Lunar Nodes in Gemini-Sagittarius 2021
The Lunar Nodes are also in Gemini and Sagittarius, where we also find the eclipses. They have been there since May 2020 and will stay there throughout all of 2021 until 18 January 2022 (by true node calculations). In particular, the North Node is in Gemini and the South Node in Sagittarius. This points to a very important evolutionary imperative: Be aware of your how your beliefs colour your perceptions!
It’s time to question your most cherished world-views, ditch any blinkers or dogmas and learn from direct experience.
Neptune squares the Lunar Nodes in January 2021 and all the way till spring, putting the world in a powerful unreality bubble. This is bound to make the belief-perception equation much more fluid and open to the imagination, which can be good or bad, depending how you use it. An agnostic attitude will serve you best as 2021 gets into its stride.
Mercury Retrograde 2021 in Air: Review Your Thinking!
Things develop fast this year. We have pretty much no personal planets retrograde (the ones that really stop us in our tracks!) other than the usual, i.e. Mercury. Until December, that is, when Venus turns, but by then, the year is pretty much done.
As Mercury backtracks over Air signs this year: it’s time to revisit the way you think, communicate and perceive things.
The months to watch are February, June and October 2021. These are times to stop and carry out a thorough review of your situation and - most importantly - how you think about it and how that affects your relationships with everyone around you.
Mercury Retrograde 2021:
30 January-21 February Mercury retrograde in Aquarius (28-11 degrees) shadow 14 January-12 March)
29 May-22 June in Gemini (24-16 degrees) (shadow 14 May-2 July)
27 September-18 October in Libra (25-10 degrees) LIBRA 25-10LI 27(shadow 6 Sep-2 Nov)
The dates that Mercury stations are the most tense and clumsy, without exception. Try to keep a light schedule on such dates.
Remember also that Mercury casts a much longer shadow than the retrograde itself, creating 3 two-month windows per year in which to revisit particular issues in your life. These are times to go over old ground, pick things apart or pick up where you left off, and step forward with greater clarity.
Venus Retrograde December 2021: Re-evaluate Relationships of Power!
Venus also turns retrograde this year but not until 2021 begins to wrap up. Venus retrograde will take us over the Christmas holidays and into 2022. Venus stations in Capricorn on December 19th and you will feel her starting to withdraw her lovely graces slowly after November 17th.
Most importantly, perhaps, Venus stations retrograde conjunct Pluto in Capricorn.
Year's end brings a chance for you to re-assess relationships of power: how do you give away your power? And what steps can you take toward your own empowerment?
Venus retrograde 2021-2022:
19 December 2021 - 29 January 2022, 26-11 degrees Capricorn.
From 17 November Venus begins to tread uncertain ground (entering her retrograde shadow) bringing up issues that won’t be resolved till March 2022.
Venus goes retrograde every 1,5 years - a time period outside our usual calendar rhythms, which almost always catches us off guard.
Every 8 years, Venus returns to the same bit of the zodiac, as she appears to station, tracing a near perfect pentagram in the sky. And so you can look a what themes Venus activated for you 8 years ago to get a taste of what's coming.
The last time that Venus was retrograde in Capricorn was December 2013-January 2014.
That was a different time, a different sky, but still: Venus retrograde will reactivate that same area of your life now as it did then.
Chiron 2021: Authenticity and Healing
Centaur Chiron also has lots to say in 2021. Chiron is a centaur by myth (half horse half human) and a centaur by astronomy (an orbiting body between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt). Classified both as an asteroid and a comet, Chiron connects the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.
Chiron bridges the gap between established reality (Saturn) and human genius (Uranus).
Most unnervingly, Chiron crosses Saturn’s orbit and spends some time between Saturn and Mars in his orbit. And while there’s no danger of collision, this is perhaps why Chiron is also associated with human vulnerability - our weak spot or Achilles heel.
Where we find Chiron we often find the elephant in the room, the gaping wound that it’s high time we addressed, both as a society and as individuals.
Chiron connects with Saturn by sextile and with Jupiter by semi square throughout 2021. This is an opportunity to address our vulnerabilities and blind spots. 2021 brings a chance to re-integrate fragmented parts of ourselves that we may have disowned in the past, paving the way for a life of greater authenticity.
Chiron in Aries (2019-2027) is all about the castration of individual autonomy, potency and independence. These are really sensitive topics right now, topics that have almost become taboo and difficult to address.
2021 brings opportunities to do so. Chiron sextiles Saturn on 9 February, 24 June and 27 November, when these opportunities become manifest. As Chiron also semi squares Jupiter in 2021 (on 6 April, 18 August and 18 November), it’s clear that no enduring vision can be born that does not make space for the individual.
Chiron travels from 5-12 Aries in 2021. He goes retrograde 15 July - 19 December. Chiron has been in Aries since 2018-19 and will stay till 2027.
Saturn in Aquarius: Restrictions on Freedom
After three years in Capricorn, Saturn is now firmly in Aquarius. The ringed master and architect of our reality has set up shop there since December 2020 and will stay till 2023. We had a taste of that right when the first lockdowns were coming in from 22 March 2020 all the way till July 4th - in fact matching the period of the first UK lockdown exactly.
Saturn in Aquarius is certainly about increased social controls, limitations on human freedoms, as well as restricted air-travel and even internet restrictions.
But Saturn in Aquarius is not just about lockdowns and restrictions. Not even about social distancing, compellingly fitting as those words are. It’s about developing a greater social conscience and a sense of community and global responsibility.
Saturn in Aquarius is also about responsible science and technology - a huge theme moving forward as we hand more and more of the decision powers of our world to scientists and technocrats, so far with little regulation.
Saturn covers 1-13 degrees Aquarius in 2021, stations retrograde 23 May and direct 11 October. He’ll stay in Aquarius till March 2023.
Uranus in Taurus: Turning Value on its Head
Uranus has been in Taurus since 2018-19, turning everything we think of as valuable on its head - and money is a big part of that.
By the time Uranus leaves Taurus, in 2026, money, as we know it, will be totally transformed.
Uranus in Taurus is also very much about rethinking our entire physicality - our body and our senses, our fuel and resources, our farming, our nutrition and the earth as a whole. All of these are due for a major overhaul now and until 2026.
The theme of radically changing personal and social values plays a major part in the progress we make and in how we exercise our freedom and autonomy in 2021.
An obvious theme here is the change of our world through digital (Uranus) currencies (Taurus). Expect major attempt to control digital currencies in 2021 as Saturn in Aquarius squares Uranus in Taurus - a creative struggle that will lead to the change of money as we know it, transactions and what constitutes a store of value. Cleaner earth technologies should also become more mainstream before Uranus leaves Taurus, as well as innovations in farming practices and the treatment of the body.
Uranus covers 6 - 14 degrees Taurus this year, stations direct 14 January and retrograde 20 August. Uranus has been in Taurus since 2018-19 and will stay till April 2026
Jupiter in Aquarius and Pisces
Lucky Jupiter straddles two signs this year, Aquarius and Pisces, bringing opportunity and expansion in the territory covered by those signs.
In Aquarius Jupiter offers a buffer against Saturn, creating a sense of brotherhood and social cohesion until May 2021 that allows for fast social and technological developments.
As Jupiter separates from Saturn, you can sense the chance of a lifetime within your grasp, something you can commit to and build on for the future.
Jupiter briefly squares Uranus as he transits Aquarius, on January 17th. This is a moment of liberation, revolution and potentially extreme recklessness!
Jupiter enters Pisces on 13 May and stays there till 28 July 2021. Jupiter in Pisces elevates our spirituality and compassion, love and the creative imagination. Jupiter is stronger in Pisces, a sign he rules, bringing some relief.
Jupiter travels from 2 Aquarius to 2 Pisces in 2021. Jupiter is in Aquarius till 13 May and again from 28 July to 29 December, He’s in Pisces 13 May - 28 July. Jupiter turns retrograde 20 June at 2 degrees Pisces and direct again 18 October at 22 degrees Aquarius.
Neptune in Pisces and Pluto in Capricorn
These outermost bodies of our solar system are not involved in major planetary aspects that define the year. (But watch out for Neptune square the Lunar Nodes, and Venus stationing retrograde on Pluto).
Neptune is strong in Pisces and has largely a dissolving effect on our society, at the same time promoting a powerful spiritual awakening.
As for Pluto in Capricorn, it's all about the abuse of power and the destruction and eventual transformation of social structures that follows it.
Neptune covers 18-23 degrees Pisces (where he’s been since 2012 and will stay till 2026), going retrograde 26 June and direct 1 December.
Pluto covers 24-28 Capricorn (where he’s been since 2008 and will stay till January 2024), going retrograde 27 April and direct 6 October.
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